For the 10th consecutive year, a Northshore group is sending a little taste of home to the troops. With a little help from their friends, Operation We Care is shipping 500 king cakes to the soldiers.

The colors this time of year as Carnival approaches are normally purple, green and gold, but today it was all red, white and blue at Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Nick Fasola had no idea what he had just walked into on Thursday when he went into Randozzo's Camellia City Bakery for king cake and found a whole lot more.

"A sense of pride to be in the military, and you know that people back home support us," he said. "You know, pretty surreal."

Workers from Operation We Care and Randazzo's were hard at it packing 500 freshly baked king cakes covered in red white and blue for shipment to troops in Afghanistan and on board the USS Harry S. Truman.

"Our troops are everything," said Colleen Smith with Operation We Care. "You're going to make me cry. They sacrifice everything for us, and this is just a little something that we can do to show them our appreciation."

"Once they get a taste of the cake, they just know that we are thinking of them and realize just how many people appreciate what they are doing over there," said Tricia Randazzo-Zornes of Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery.

Messages of support from local students decorate the outside of the shipping containers. And the volunteers -- many of them veterans themselves -- have children of their own in harm's way.

"It's our country, and it's our duty to support our country and our military in particular," said volunteer Garnett Bedenbaugh, whose grandson is a Marine.

"We just really like to be involved with the troops, because we love all the troops," said Susan Schaefer, whose daughter is a Marine. "They are all our kids. That's the way I feel."

For the 10th consecutive year, a Northshore group is sending a little taste of home to the troops. With a little help from their friends, Operation We Care is shipping 500 king cakes to the soldiers.

The colors this time of year as Carnival approaches are normally purple, green and gold, but today it was all red, white and blue at Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Nick Fasola had no idea what he had just walked into on Thursday when he went into Randozzo's Camellia City Bakery for king cake and found a whole lot more.

"A sense of pride to be in the military, and you know that people back home support us," he said. "You know, pretty surreal."

Workers from Operation We Care and Randazzo's were hard at it packing 500 freshly baked king cakes covered in red white and blue for shipment to troops in Afghanistan and on board the USS Harry S. Truman.

"Our troops are everything," said Colleen Smith with Operation We Care. "You're going to make me cry. They sacrifice everything for us, and this is just a little something that we can do to show them our appreciation."

"Once they get a taste of the cake, they just know that we are thinking of them and realize just how many people appreciate what they are doing over there," said Tricia Randazzo-Zornes of Randazzo's Camellia City Bakery.

Messages of support from local students decorate the outside of the shipping containers. And the volunteers -- many of them veterans themselves -- have children of their own in harm's way.

"It's our country, and it's our duty to support our country and our military in particular," said volunteer Garnett Bedenbaugh, whose grandson is a Marine.

"We just really like to be involved with the troops, because we love all the troops," said Susan Schaefer, whose daughter is a Marine. "They are all our kids. That's the way I feel."